J.K. Rowling Laments Being 'Misunderstood' In Upcoming Podcast
J.K. Rowling Laments Being 'Misunderstood' In Upcoming Podcast
The trailer for The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling already has the author playing the victim.
J.K. Rowling is part of a new podcast seemingly all about how she is actually the victim in the wake of her years-long crusade publicly demonizing trans activists.
“You could not have misunderstood me more profoundly,” the Harry Potter author claims in the trailer for The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling, which dropped on Tuesday.
Her comments are directly in response to claims she says she has seen in recent years that she has “ruined [her] legacy” by opting to stand in support of TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) and double down on anti-trans rhetoric again and again. She even published a whole book where a character is a victim of a “hate campaign” from “social justice warriors” angry about a transphobic cartoon.
Rowling’s refusal to acknowledge the real world harm her stance perpetuates is mind-blowing, and the decision to release the trailer for this podcast just days after a bullied trans teen was murdered in the UK is tone-deaf, at best.
Megan Phelps-Roper, the granddaughter of Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps, is hosting the podcast, which allegedly includes interviews with “people on all sides of this conflict.” Upon the announcement, she tried to insinuate some sort of impartiality and a necessity for good faith discussions between both sides of the table.
\u201cMajor toxicity surrounds this conflict, but there are human beings on all sides of it. I spoke with dozens of them. Their stories are important, illuminating, and\u2014in a moment when black-and-white positions abound\u2014essential to understand.\n\nhttps://t.co/BOSXEAbC3E\u201d— Megan Phelps-Roper (@Megan Phelps-Roper) 1676376063
Of course, it’s difficult to believe something likening Rowling’s experience using her immense platform to punch down at a community already under fire by lawmakers and facing violence in the streets to “witch trials” could possibly be impartial.
\u201cI do not, actually, think we'll be surprised\u201d— Danielle Froom \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08 (@Danielle Froom \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08) 1676405766
But even beyond the skepticism that this podcast could do anything beyond present Rowling as a martyr, people are just tired. Tired of Rowling’s influence, tired of having to argue that she’s causing damage, and tired of her playing the victim.
\u201c@Esqueer_ \u201cprofoundly misunderstood\u201d says the woman who literally said \u201cMerry TERFmas\u201d less than two months ago\n\nlike idk man i think i understood that one pretty fucking clearly\u201d— Alejandra Caraballo (@Alejandra Caraballo) 1676466670
\u201cJK Rowling likes to play the victim when in reality she's a giant bully. When people criticize her, she sends her legal team to threaten them with legal action and financial ruin to retract it and apologize. A billionaire is abusing the legal system to silence her critics.\u201d— Alejandra Caraballo (@Alejandra Caraballo) 1676393519
\u201cIn the wake of Brianna Ghey\u2019s violent murder, notorious \u2018gender critical\u2019 transphobe, JK Rowling, positions herself as the real victim! \ud83d\ude23\n\n\u2026Don\u2019t look over there! It\u2019s all about meeeeee\u2026..!\u201d— Helen\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\u270a\ud83c\udffb\ud83d\udc95 (@Helen\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\u270a\ud83c\udffb\ud83d\udc95) 1676377771
\u201cFor the record, I take issue with some of the pile-ons that a subset of the community engages in at times.\n\nBut @jk_rowling\u2014one of the world\u2019s wealthiest people\u2014repeatedly taunting the community with harmful rhetoric and positioning herself as a victim afterward is bullsh*t.\u201d— Leah McElrath (@Leah McElrath) 1676388661
\u201ctw: violence.\nA 16 year old girl has been murdered in a suspected hate crime. \nBut lets not forget the real victim of the "trans debate". \nJK Rowling.\u201d— Alyx \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\ud83c\udff4\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc62\udb40\udc73\udb40\udc63\udb40\udc74\udb40\udc7f (@Alyx \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\ud83c\udff4\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc62\udb40\udc73\udb40\udc63\udb40\udc74\udb40\udc7f) 1676405710
“I never set out to upset anyone,” Rowling claims in the podcast trailer. Whether that’s true or not — and there’s been plenty to suggest that it isn’t — she certainly hasn’t gone out of her way to avoid doing harm either.
Does J.K. Rowling own Harry Potter?
Rowling retains the rights to the intellectual property, and thus profits from anything made relating to the world.
Is J.K. Rowling a billionaire?
Rowling's net worth is estimated to be at least £820 million.
Who is Robert Galbraith?
Galbraith is a pseudonym used by J.K. Rowling. Robert Galbraith Heath was a psychiatrist who experimented with and pushed anti-LGBTQ+ conversion therapy through the 20th century, although Rowling claims that is coincidental.
